So I took her to the river
believing she was a maiden,
but she already had a husband.
It was on St. James night
and almost as if I was obliged to.
The lanterns went out
and the crickets lighted up.
In the farthest street corners
I touched her sleeping breasts
and they opened to me suddenly
like spikes of hyacinth.
The starch of her petticoat
sounded in my ears
like a piece of silk
rent by ten knives.
Without silver light on their foliage
the trees had grown larger
and a horizon of dogs
barked very far from the river.

Past the blackberries,
the reets and the hawthorne
underneath her cluster of hair
I made a hollow in the earth
I took off my tie,
she took off her dress.
I, my belt with the revolver,
She, her four bodices.
Nor nard nor mother-o´-pearl
have skin so fine,
nor does glass with silver
shine with such brilliance.
Her tighs slipped away from me
like startled fish,
half full of fire,
half full of cold.
That night I ran
on the best of roads
mounted on a nacre mare
without bridle stirrups.

As a man, I won´t repeat
the things she said to me.
The light of understanding
has made me more discreet.
Smeared with sand and kisses
I took her away from the river.
The swords of the lilies
battled with the air.

I behaved like what I am,
like a proper gypsy.
I gave her a large sewing basket,
of straw-colored satin,
but I did not fall in love
for although she had a husband
she told me she was a maiden
when I took her to the river.

That's interesting. I had no idea Leonard's "The Faithless Wife" was based on a poem by Lorca. It is very touching that Leonard takes the time to bring some of this dead poet's work back to life in this way.

"In this world of shallow, he is the abyss."~ YouTube commenter greg450318
________________________________________________________________
Lyon, July 2008 / Oakland x2, April 2009 / San Jose, November 2009 / Oakland, December 2010 / San Jose, November 2012 / Oakland, March 2013

Another artist who has been influenced hugely by Lorca is French singer Jean Ferrat. Lorca is mentioned in several of his chansons, and there is one song - very moving, too - about Lorca being murdered:

The Cob Gallery is delighted to present Eleanor, a cinematic installation directed by Alex Warren and Tobias Ross-Southall. The installation follows three solitary women over the course of one eventful night, and examines what it means to be alone in a city like London. BAFTA nominated actress Ruth Wilson plays all three women.

Eleanor unfolds across three large interplaying screens, with one screen apportioned to each character. As the night progresses and the three narratives cross, characters move between the screens, stepping from one to the next, creating a real-time immersive experience.

Warren and Ross-Southall drew inspiration for the characters within Eleanor from three different poems: If I Could Tell You by W.H.Auden, Acquainted With The Night by Robert Frost, and The Faithless Wife by Leonard Cohen.

They approached three of the countryâs finest young writers â Polly Stenham, Michael Lesslie and Anya Reiss â to interpret the three original source poems from which the characters had been conceived.

The score for the film features music by Blaine Harrison from The Mystery Jets and Johnny Lloyd formerly of Tribes, whilst also featuring a collaboration with Romany Pajdak and Kristen McNally from The Royal Ballet.

Eleanor is supported by Creative England and the BFI, as well as a number of private donors and creative funder, IdeasTap.

To download the press release please click.

Postcard Project

Curator and Cob Gallery director Victoria Williams has approached artists associated with the Cob Gallery to submit artwork inspired by the original Auden, Cohen and Frost poems. Postcard Project features small-scale original work from:

Postcards are for sale with proceeds going to the Cob Galleryâs new charity â Cobble Together for the Arts.

Cobble Together For The Arts

The Cob Gallery has launched a new charity, Cobble Together For The Arts, aimed at tackling inequality both in the arts and through the arts, by providing education, employment and community projects for young people in London.

The charity is inviting students within the borough of Camden to view Eleanor and respond with their own piece â in whatever form, from painting to poetry to film. The work will form an exhibition and be judged by a panel including Matt Smith and Sunday Times art critic, Waldemar Januszczak.

An education and mentoring project will run alongside this, comprising of a series of workshops for students with leading professionals working in film, theatre, TV and the music industries to inspire and support students from across the borough.

Williams, Cobble founder said: âIncreasingly the arts is seen as an indulgence for the few. Unpaid internships and freelancers forced to undercut one another have created a world that seems inaccessible to many. This project will provide practical advice from top professionals, and hopefully inspire them to see creativity as an attribute to be cherished, and that can lead to a successful career.â